Knitted fabrics have soft band feeling and excellent stretchability as compared with those of woven fabrics or the like and have been widely used for general clothes and sport clothes. On the other hand, knitted fabrics have disadvantages of easiness of ventilation with coldness because of higher air permeability than that of woven fabrics when used as autumn and winter clothing.
In order to eliminate the disadvantages, several methods have hitherto been proposed so as to enhance the wind-breaking property of knitted fabrics. For example, there are known methods for coating the back surface of a knitted fabric with a resin, laminating a film onto the back surface or laminating a high-density woven fabric onto the back surface of the knitted fabric and raising the wind-breaking property or the like. Although the wind-breaking property is improved by the methods, there are problems that the sufficient water absorbing property is not usually obtained and the skin becomes sticky during perspiration and further hand feeling of the knitted fabric is hard.
On the other hand, knitted fabrics obtained by knitting water absorbing fibers or porous fibers such as cotton are known as the knitted fabrics having the water absorbing property. However, there are problems that the sufficient wind-breaking property is not obtained though the water absorbing property is excellent simply by knitting known knitted fabrics using the water absorbing fibers or porous fibers.
For the reasons described above, supply of insulated knitted fabrics having both performances of wind-breaking and water absorbing properties has been demanded.